Trump spitting into the wind
hearing, Trump complained ‘‘It would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what’s right.’’ Just the one statement? Apparently the exercise of judicial scrutiny, at this level, is in his eyes a two-step process. Read and heed.
Instead, the judges unhelpfully listened to the other side of the argument too. And then they indulged in another needless complication that didn’t fit into Trump’s wish list for judicial conduct. They thought about it. None too respectfully either.
‘‘Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the executive order, the government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all,’’ the judges wrote.
For instance they had been given no evidence that any alien from the seven identified countries had carried out a terrorist attack in the US.
Details, details. ‘‘SEE YOU IN COURT. THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE’’ the president tweeted.
That would be the supreme court. An outfit likely to have its own views about the security of the nation, and its own role in that
Legitimately so. It wasn’t created to be quite so biddable.
The US system of government was set up by some guys with nowfamous names on the basis that the president, congress and the supreme court each provided checks and balances against the others.
A protection against the possibility of any one of them doing something completely crazy.
Trump doesn’t do knockbacks any more than does details, niceties or due diligence.
By his own reckoning, he’s a winner. By others’, he’s the possessor of a narcissistic personality disorder which demands of him that the only occasion he’ll turn the other cheek is when it’s to slosh around that next spray of spittle.
But personalised attacks on judges are spitting into the wind.
More than that, when he makes childishly coded criticisms like ‘‘I won’t call it biased . . . but courts seem to be so political’’ he’s hastening down a path to constitutional crisis and a shortlived presidency.
A bad thing? Arguably it might be the most direct route best gettable outcome.